


For You I’ll Wait

by Bruteaous



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 08:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18133604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruteaous/pseuds/Bruteaous
Summary: It’s been six months since Penelope left the Salvatore School and Mystic Falls behind her. Quietly, she deals with the repercussions of her decisions and attempts to live with them, but what happens when Fate takes you in a direction you had no idea was still open to you?





	1. The Unfortunate Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Loved ep. 1x14 because it functioned on so many levels, but it also broke my heart multiple times and I needed some warm and fuzzy joy to combat the evil misery I was left with. Thought I’d share. Hoping this makes someone’s Saturday just like writing it did mine. Also I want to preface this by saying that I love Lizzie on the show as well as Josie, I just think that Lizzie (though she does have a good heart) would've been jealous of Penelope and Josie and acted out. I mean, Josie even says it in 1x12, anytime Josie liked someone, Lizzie would go for them, I just may've interpreted it a little differently. With that said, Happy reading!

At the end of the day, the only person we are accountable to is ourselves. We have to be able to live with the choices we make and the ones we don’t. And the ones that were made for us are perhaps the hardest to accept.

 

The same thing was proving true for Penelope right now. As it turns out, actual Hogwarts—or the Belgium equivalent—wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. After six months, the shine of a new country, new city, new people and places had worn off and Penelope was kind of miserable. Well…not miserable entirely, but she wasn’t happy. Whatever the in between of miserable and happy was, she was that with a side of boredom thrown in for the hell of it.

 

God, she couldn’t even think coherently anymore. For the hundredth time that day in her fifth period ‘Introduction to Contemporary European Pagan Beliefs and Practices,’ class, Penelope found herself wondering how the people she’d left behind in Mystic Falls were doing.

 

Correction: she was wondering how Josie was doing.

 

 _You need to stop moping_ , she chastised herself. _You had to make the best decision for both of you at the time even if it did break your already broken heart into a million more pieces._

 

In a rare lapse of nostalgia, Penelope momentarily allowed herself to remember a time where she and Josie had both been happy together. It felt like forever ago probably because it _really_ had been so long ago. Almost two years, if she counted these past six months in Europe. At the start of Penelope and Josie’s relationship, everything had been so much different than it had been by the time Penelope left the school. Josie had been different too in a way. She’d been so open, carefree in a way teenagers were sometimes wont to be when they didn’t have jobs or responsibilities, and ready to smile at the easiest of provocations. At least, when she wasn’t under Lizzie’s controlling negative influence.

 

And those times when it had been just the two of them had been the happies of Penelope’s young life. But nothing lasts forever, especially if it feels perfect.

 

The trouble started first—as it so often does—with outside pressure. After they’d been dating for a few months, Lizzie had begun to grow jealous of Josie being the focus of such obvious affection while all of Lizzie’s hook ups with attractive shallow people went up in predictable flames around her instead of growing into anything more meaningful. Instead of doing what any normal person would’ve done and seen it as an example of what she needed to change in her life, Lizzie had decided that she could have what Josie had, no, that she would have it and Josie—like always—would let her take it.

 

That hadn’t been what exactly happened, because Penelope had seen what was coming, but the actual end had been just as terrible as probably whatever Lizzie had originally imagined. First, one day when Josie was in a self-defense training session with her father, Lizzie had approached Penelope in an empty hall and asked her if she would go back to the little abandoned shack in the woods the twins would take crushes too and cut class to have a drink with her, but Penelope had refused outright and—sin of sins—she’d not only rebuked the blonde, she’d told her that she thought she was terrible sister and that Josie deserved better. That had led Lizzie to flat up shout at Penelope that the worst thing that had ever happened to Josie was meeting Penelope, her twin just didn’t know it yet.

 

That should’ve been a red flag, but Penelope had brushed off the insult, not thinking of it as the threat it was intended as. Soon thereafter, Lizzie’s “fits” of temper had gone off the charts. The day it all went to shit, Penelope and Josie had been canoodling somewhere on the grounds because it was a sunny day and cuddling in the shade had felt right. They’d been holding each other, occasionally kissing when Josie had doubled over in what she called “twin pain”—pain one twin felt that was shared by the other. They’d both come running back to the school, finding the glass roof of the main astrology observatory shattered in on itself and a sobbing Lizzie in Dr. Saltzman’s arms.

 

When he’d spotted them creeping into the desiccated room, Alaric had risen and rounded on Josie, shouting at her. “Where were you?! You know, Lizzie needs you now more than ever with your mother away. I can’t be here all of the time. You need to help each other!” Josie’s immediate shame and guilt had radiated off of her and rebounded onto her girlfriend in waves. Penelope felt her stomach clench in fear and was going to apologize to Dr. Saltzman on Josie’s behalf. After all, it had been her who’d suggested a picnic on the nearby hill would be romantic, but before she could, Penelope spotted Lizzie out of the corner of her eyes.

 

The red eyed blonde was still kneeling on the floor, little pieces of glass carving rivulets of crimson into her bare legs, but the way she was looking up at Alaric scolding Josie put any idea of the incident being an unfortunate accident to rest. Not when the smug smirk as Josie was berated louder and louder only grew on her face as the volume escalated. From that day on, Penelope found it harder and harder to find time alone with her girlfriend, either because Lizzie would interrupt them and take Josie away or because Josie didn’t feel like Lizzie was stable enough for the brunette to leave her side. So Penelope had waited and stole what few moments alone she could when scheduling or pure dumb luck permitted them.

 

But things had really come to a head, that year at Christmas. Josie had worn herself thin making sure everything was always so perfect for Lizzie, that she’d been neglecting herself, even sometimes forgetting to eat. So Penelope had decided that she was going to do something special for her girlfriend that she’d never think of doing for herself. She’d had the whole thing planned out over the space of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. She’d even stayed at the school over the mid-winter break to get everything just right. It’d started 12 days before Christmas, like the song, only more simple. She’d deliver a peach colored rose to Josie every morning because it was the time of day when she was the least stressed with an already made cup of coffee and a muffin before Lizzie even reared her evil head from her pillow.

 

It was meant to culminate in the final rose being given on Christmas Eve, with the special gift of Penelope having prepared one of the apartment-like rooms visiting faculty used with candles and rose petals. She’d planned to pamper Josie, to remind her that she was worthy of love and care, even if she forgot it sometimes. She’d rub Josie’s feet, hold her, feed her chocolates, and when that was done, they’d spend Christmas Eve together in the master bedroom giving gifts of love to one another until morning. But for the plan to work, it’d needed to stay secret. Penelope had spelled the door to the empty faculty apartment so it opened for her without a key when she tried the handle, which had allowed her to work on everything in her spare time.

 

Until, Lizzie had caught Penelope one day moving through the faculty wing, and she hadn’t let it drop after that.

 

In fact, the blonde had tactfully brought it up during dinner with her family one night, saying that there were rumors students were using the empty faculty apartments for parties and clandestine meetings over the holiday break and Alaric—never one to let a rumor go without verifying it—had launched a full scale investigation. Penelope had been found out and so had Josie apparently—for Alaric hadn’t been told that his youngest daughter had begun seriously dating just yet because it was Josie’s first relationship and she’d wanted to tell her dad when she was comfortable, but the drama with Lizzie had made that impossible.

 

In the wake of the fallout, Penelope had been temporarily suspended for a few weeks and when she’d returned to the campus, things had been different. Lizzie was more smug every time they crossed one another in the halls and Josie seemed more distant, less inclined to smile or laugh. The two of them had begun to fight seriously then—almost every day—but despite the tension, it was still clear that Penelope and Josie still loved one another and were trying to work things out.

 

Then Lizzie had gone in for the killing stroke.

 

On Founder’s day that year, Penelope and Josie had spent the morning talking things through before Josie had had to leave to help prepare for the celebrations with her dad. Later that night, Penelope had sought Josie out at the bonfire and she’d found her, liquored up and—apparently—frisky. She’d led Penelope out into the trees a little ways away from the crowds and kissed her.

 

Hard.

 

Josie had been forceful that night in a way that Josie seldom was, needy, and not at all bothered by the idea of PDA. That should’ve tipped Penelope off right there that something hadn’t been right, but she too had had a couple of drinks and wasn’t thinking clearly about anything but enjoying and exploring this new fierce side to Josie. In those heated moments, Penelope had felt wanted. Needed. She’d felt important in a way Penelope hadn’t felt since Lizzie’s fits had begun to escalate and Josie had been forced to devote more time and energy to keeping her twin on the level.

 

Alone out in the trees finally, Josie was demanding a certain level of affection and devotion from Penelope and Penelope—who could never deny Josie—gave it freely. The pliant body arcing into hers had been half naked before Penelope had heard a sharp gasp from behind her. She’d spun on her toes, shielding Josie’s body with her own and preparing to tell off whoever it had been who’d been stalking them, but nothing came out of her mouth. Nothing but a shallow intake of breath and a squeezing of something like a fist around Penelope’s heart. Standing before her in the tree line was Josie—the _real_ Josie—watching her. Her face was a stern mask and her dark eyes were swimming with tears already overflowing down her cheeks.

 

Penelope had thought she’d been seeing things at first. There couldn’t be two Josies. She stepped away from the Josie she had pressed up against the nearest birch and—no, it couldn’t be. There’d been a whisper of a word in the air between them then and the magical glamour—for that had been what it was—had melted away revealing Lizzie flushed and chortling where only moments before her girlfriend had been.

 

“How could you…” the horrified words had flittered from between Josie’s lips before she could stop them, her voice breaking over the last syllables.

 

“I was right, Jo. She can’t even tell the difference between you and me. I’d thought she would’ve been able to. The glamour was meant as a test, a test of loyalty that your perfect angel of a girlfriend just failed. How do you feel about her now?”

 

Lizzie’s voice matter-of-fact and cold still burned its ways through Penelope’s ears from the deep recesses of her mind and she recalled the words. Then Josie had turned away from her and fled.

 

“JoJo…wait!”

 

But it’d been too late. Josie had run all the way back to the school. Penelope had run after her and they’d confronted one another in one massive argument at the foot of the main staircase. Penelope had explained herself as well as she could, Josie had slapped her, then Penelope had slapped her back out of instinct, and the love that had remained between them throughout so much had been drowned out in hurt, sorrow, anger, and an emotional haze of booze. The resulting break-up finally came when Josie told Penelope that she’d broken her heart and her trust beyond repair—the girl seemingly giving Lizzie a free pass even though the blonde was really the one who’d betrayed them both. Rather than fight after all of that, Penelope had decided she couldn’t be in a relationship with someone who couldn’t love and respect themselves no matter how much she might love them and she’d stuck to that…mostly.

 

Then what had followed in the months after was a cold war—the likes of which could’ve even rivaled the last Ice Age—before Penelope had finally had enough and declared an actual war. From then on, she’d made it her mission to get Lizzie back any way she could and it had felt like the brunette was succeeding when her mother had called her out of the blue one night and told her about the job she’d interviewed for over skype in Antwerp.

 

And now here Penelope was, with the warlock Mr. Wiche droning on about the importance of lunar phases and waiting for the school day to end. She’d lost so much, but Penelope had never been a person to dwell. Instead, she fought, but there was nothing to fight for now. For all she knew, Lizzie still had a stranglehold on Josie’s emotions and with the discovery of the merge, there was very little Penelope could do now. She’d spent the weeks before leaving trying to help Josie protect herself— _from_ herself—and Lizzie, but the Miss Mystic Falls wipeout engineered by none other than Lizzie had been the last straw.

 

There were times that Penelope regretted leaving, because who was going to protect Josie from Fate? But Penelope was little by little learning to live with the unfortunate truth that—all the while she had been fighting for Josie—Penelope had not been fighting for herself and she couldn’t have lived like that. She couldn’t have stayed and watched as Lizzie absorbed her heart and destroyed her a second time. It was up to Josie now. She had to fight for herself and maybe one day—if she miraculously succeeded—then they could have a chance at a real future together, but that day was not today and unlikely to be any day soon.

* * *

 

**Onto Part 2: queue the joy!**


	2. Rise Above

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Joy

The remainder of the last hour of the school day went by quickly. Penelope gathered her things and descended the spiral staircase that would lead back to the main hall and the dorms beyond. All she wanted to do was sleep, though she’d deny it to anyone who asked. Previous American attendees had set a precedent that had left behind it a stereotype of arrogance, classic rock & roll, lots of alcohol, and non-stop partying. It wasn’t something Penelope let concern herself very much. Hers was an international school and stereotypes ran rampant through the halls as much as rumor. Still, she’d rather not be known as the lame American girl who falls asleep while the sun is still up, though Penelope had to concede that there were worst things to be known for. 

At the bottom of the stairs, a single figure stood still in the mass of passing students. From the landing, the short figure stood out starkly against the red blazers that were part of every student’s uniform, though their back was to Penelope so she couldn’t tell if she knew them or not. She could use a distraction. Something to get her mind off of all of the evil misery she’d been ruminating on all day. A new student, perhaps someone who was lost who she could make a good first impression on wouldn’t be bad. Not that she needed or really even wanted friends. Penelope had kept to herself as much as possible, making acquaintances, but nothing further out of her classmates. 

As she descended the last flight of steps, the tiny hairs on the back of Penelope’s neck stood up. Maybe they weren’t a stranger or—the figure turned around and dark all too familiar eyes met Penelope’s from below. The brunette almost tripped over her feet on the last couple of stairs. 

“Jojo?”

A nervous, but unburdened smile opened up on Josie’s face. She didn’t look all that different. Hair was a little longer, but everything else about her was just as radiant as it had been when they were together. Penelope managed to just resist the urge to run up and envelope Josie in her arms. Instead, she walked towards her with a slight tremble to her limbs that she hoped against hope the other girl didn’t notice. 

Was she dreaming? Because she’d had some serious dreams about her ex since they’d been separated for good, though usually they weren’t in the middle of the school, in a crowd of students. Josie stepped towards her, meeting Penelope in the middle and leaning forward to kiss her lips in lieu of a greeting. The kiss convinced Penelope that the vision in front of her was real. It was also different than the last kiss they’d shared, so full of regret, unsaid apologies, and sorrow. But the firm press of Josie’s lips were warm and confident on Penelope’s own and it made a desperate thrill sing its way through the other brunette’s body that she hadn’t felt since that night when she’d escorted Josie down the steps, both of them smiling in shared joy beneath the spotlight.

Josie pulled away from her then, arms around Penelope’s neck and she struggled what she’d come nearly five thousand miles to say. 

“You were right, Penelope. L—lizzie…she doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings, but her own. Not most of the time and I am so sorry that I let her bully me and you around. I’m sorry I let her tear us apart. I’m so sorry that I chose her over you because I didn’t want to believe that my twin—the person I literally spent nine months sharing a womb with—could truly betray me. But she did and you stood by me everyday no matter how terrible she treated you. I never treated you with the love and affection you’ve deserved, but I want to change all of that. I’m here fighting for me. For the two of us. I want a future with you. I want a happily ever after with you—if those really exist in real life—and no jealous sister, geography, or some demented twin-absorbing ritual will stand in the way…that is if you still want me.”  


They were the words Penelope had been waiting to hear for so long and—though they wouldn’t solve everything that had gone awry between them—they could be the perfect start. 

Penelope leaned forward for a short fierce kiss, one that left the air burning in her lungs and her heart doing somersaults inside of her ribcage.

“Yes,” Penelope finally managed. “I want you, Jojo. Being happy with you, it's all I’ve ever wanted.”

It wasn't perfect, but it was the start of a journey they would both go on. Together this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we all need some joy right now. Though I admit this story took a turn when I couldn't stop writing the backstory, I still think it ended on the happy side. Leave a comment on the way out, should you so desire and thank you for reading. :)


End file.
